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rVNUB-Al, ORATION 



ON THE DEATH OF 



PRESIDENT TAYLOR. 



FUNERAL ORATION 



ON THE DEATH OF 



PRESIDENT ZACHARY TAYLOR, 



DELIVERED 



AT A UNITED MEETING OF THE CITIZENS 



.0. 

OF 



DENNIS AND THE VICINITY, 
JULY 31, 1850. 



BY EICHAED TOLMAN, 

PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN SOUTH DENNIS. 



J)ubli0l)e^ bg Hquest. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 24 CONGRESS STREET. 

1850. 






'Cl 



\ 



OEATION. 



Fellow Citizens : 

The message, recently received from the seat of gov- 
ernment, proves that the hand of the Almighty has been among 
us. For fifty years after the adoption of the Constitution, no 
President had ever died in office. Whatever the ravages of 
the destroyer among the people, the Chief Magistrate, under 
the over-shadowing wings of Providence, seemed to be " im- 
mortal till his work was done." But, in the Spring of 1S41, 
we learned, by sad experience, that the executive mansion is 
not death-proof — that the inexorable messenger hesitates not to 
execute his stern commission upon the beloved and honored 
Head of the nation, though he thus extinguishes the nation's 
hopes, and clothes it in sackcloth. We well recollect that 
when, by an overwhelming majority, and with acclamations of 
joy, that echoed and re-echoed throughout the land, we had 
placed the lamented Harrison in the highest office of the gov- 
ernment, we found that we had placed him there but to die ; 
raised him to the summit of earthly greatness only as it were to 
render the more conspicuous and the more grievous his fall. 
The magnificent scenes of the inauguration, were but the pre- 
lude to the sad rites of burial. In one short month after his 
induction into office, just as we had begun to flatter ourselves 
with the idea that he was safe for the country, he bows his head 
in the dust,— thus suddenly precipitating the nation from the 
very height of joy into the'' depth of grief. 

But would not this solemn lesson of Providence suffice. 
Must the same be repeated,— and that, so soon ? Such, indeed, 
is the order of Heaven. " President Taylor is dead ; "—these 
are the dreadful words, which have been borne on the wings 



4 

of lightning throughout our vast domain ; in a degree, suspend- 
ing, for a season, the pursuits of business and of pleasure ; and 
causing the land to be covered again with the varied insignia 
of grief. The funeral obsequies have been performed at the 
seat of government, in the most grand and imposing manner. 
Many of our cities and large towns also, have paid some public 
tribute of respect to his memory. 

And shall his decease be unwept on these shores? Are we 
indifferent spectators of the bereavement, over which a nation 
mourns ? However much the ocean breezes may bronze the 
countenance, they do not, we trust, harden the soul. Where 
did the message of the President's death fall more heavily, or 
with a greater chill, than upon our hearts. Nor would we be 
wanting in the proper expression of our sorrow. Sons, as we 
are, of the Puritans; dwelling, as we do, on the shores where 
the Puritans first landed, — shores consecrated by their prayers, 
and watered by their tears, and where their dust now reposes ; — 
surely it is meet that we be afilicted in the affliction of this 
Republic, which it cost them so much to establish. We, 
therefore, the citizens of the Cape, and brethren of the sea, 
come here to-day to pay our tribute of respect to the memory 
of the departed. The badges of mourning that shroud this 
pulpit, and overhang the different parts of this sacred temple, 
are no empty, unmeaning show, but a fit emblem of the sad- 
ness that fills our hearts. The removal of a Chief Magistrate, 
at any time, would be a subject of lamentation; — how much 
more his removal at such a crisis, when there is pending the 
decision of one of the most momentous questions of this age 
and nation, the question of Freedom or Slavery, — whose issues, 
President Taylor seemed to be the very man to meet, as they 
should be met, with an unfaltering step, and an unflinching 
brow. Still, under this righteous dispensation, which not only 
crushes the hopes of a family, but involves a nation in mourn- 
ing, we would bow submissively to the Supreme Disposer of 
all events. 

Fellow citizens, I come not here to recount the various inci- 
dents in the history of our late Chief Magistrate, or to trace 
his steps through his forty years' memorable service in the field 
up to the Presidential chair. That history is doubtless familiar 
to you all. Nor is it the speaker's purpose to dwell on the po- 



litical bearings and results of the administration, so suddenly 
terminated. The speaker is not the man, nor is this tiic occa- 
sion, to meddle with party matters. It is not the petty trial of 
a class, or a section, but a great national calamity which calls 
us together. These sable weeds are meant to show that the 
shadow of death has settled over our wide-extended country, 
covering it from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the tokens 
of sorrow. 

I cannot, however, fail to observe, that the character of our 
late President was one whose features are truly prominent, 
strongly marked. We read that " Sir Godfrey Kneller, after 
several inetfectual attempts to execute the portrait of a stupid 
London Alderman, returned to the astonished cit the fee which 
had been paid in advance, with the remark ; — 'Sir, you gave 
me this money to paint your face ; but you have got no face 
to paint ! ' " Not so with him whom we now commemorate. 
Most surely, Zachary Taylor had a face to paint ; and, let me 
add, he had, what every man ought to have, but one face, and 
that, a decided one. The gallant defender of Fort Harrison 
in 1812; the brave and indefatigable commander in the 
Florida war ; the hero of Palo Alto, Monterey and Buena 
Vista,* showed himself a man of like shrewdness, promptness, 
and valor in civic life, — with heroic moderation, holding on his 
steady course through all the tempestuous scenes of the first 
seven months of the present Congress, — withstanding, unto 
death, those slavery-propagandists who would rend the glorious 
fabric of the Union in twain, rather than not be permitted to 
spread over our new territories the leprous curse of oppression. 

Much as some of us might have regretted the nomination of 
the deceased for the Presidency, though we might have consid- 
ered it, in the language of Daniel Webster, "a nomination not 
fit to be made," we must all have admired his firmness, inde- 
pendence, and practical sagacity, in the discharge of his official 
duties, — thus proving himself great in civil, as well as in mili- 
tary life. The hero in battle may be, and often is, quite unfit- 



* The author does not here mean to imply any thing respecting the justice 
of the wars to which reference is made, or the propriety of engaging in them 
irrespective of their character ; much less does he intend to sanction the 
opinion that the camp is a good school to prepare one for the cabinet, or to 
encourage the disposition to award civil honors to the mere military hero. 



ted to act in the councils of the nation. Napoleon, though 
a " thunderbolt in war," was weak in politics. But the transfer 
of General Taylor from the camp to the cabinet, served not to 
exhibit his weakness, but to bring out his strength. His en- 
ergy rose with the occasion ; — new responsibilities developing 
only new excellencies of character — excellencies showing him 
great *' by a higher patent and an earlier creation." 

"Much of the virtue in the world," it is said, "is due to 
nothing but the not being tempted." But the character of 
Taylor as a President did not shine, merely because there was 
nothing to prove it. He did not display decision, only when 
there was no temptation to waver ; or fortitude, only when 
there was no peril to make him quail. When have the winds 
of party strife blown more fiercely ? When has the sea of 
politics been lashed into greater fury? As said Daniel Web- 
ster, in the beginning of his speech on the 7th of March, 
" The East, the North, and the stormy South, combine to 
throw the whole ocean into commotion, to toss its billows to 
the skies, and disclose its profoundest depths." And, added 
he, " I do not affect to regard myself as holding, or as fit to 
hold the helm in this combat with the political elements." So 
tempest-tossed indeed was the ship of state, laboring and 
plunging from billow to billow, as to make many a veteran 
quake with alarm. Here therefore, at the helm of aifairs, as 
in the field, there was needed no tame-spirited, craven-hearted, 
effeminate character, but a general, who " never surrenders." 
The fiercer the commotion, the more prompt and determined his 
action. Throughout the trying scene, amid all the soul-appall- 
ing, spirit-crushing difficulties of the case, did not the General, 
with his lion heart, and eagle eye, keep a steady helm ? — nor 
quit his grasp, until removed by a Higher Power ? — leaving 
the noble ship, not sinking in the deep waters, nor stranded on 
the rocks, but 

" Lilve a weather-beaten vessel, holding 
Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn." 

It is indeed worthy of our grateful consideration that, though 
a slave-holder, he was, to such an extent, above personal con- 
siderations, setting his face as a flint against certain slavery- 
exteusionists, unseduced by their flattery, unawed by their 



threats. He was not so blinded by sectional interest as to sup- 
pose that all the country lay south of Mason and Dixon's line, 
and to think favorable of nothing but what pointed to that 
particular quarter of the political compass. He had a mind 
comprehensive enough to embrace the whole land, and a heart, 
too, large enough to love it, — being the nation's Chief Magis- 
trate, the people's man. He had, moreover, the nerve to speak 
as he felt, to act as he believed, independent of dictation. 
Those who thought him of facile principle, and feeble purpose, 
all " waxy to persuasion," and so undertook to bend and shape 
him to their will,— mistook the man,— found that they might 
as well attempt to bend a pillar of iron, or mould a rock of 
adamant. And when he announced his determination to de- 
fend Cuba against those who were plotting an invasion of the 
island, who of those plotters would not as soon have thought 
of bearing up against an avalanche, or resisting a thunderbolt, 
as resisting his will ; — and their piratical movements were 
stayed. When informed that Texas was preparing to invade 
New Mexico, he gave his informers to understand that the 
right arm of the executive would be New Mexico's defence ; — 
and would not that have been enough to have kept Texas at 
bay ? Even when certain fierce advocates of oppression, in- 
vaded the sanctity of his sick chamber, and sought, by threats 
to obtain from him a pledge in favor of their peculiar institu- 
tion, (means surely worthy of the end,) they found that, 
though disease had prostrated, in a measure, the physical sys- 
tem, there was no infirmity of will ; but that, in his determi- 
nations, he was fearless and inflexible as before, standing to the 
very last as a rocky cliff that bounds the ocean, around which 
the stormy winds howl, and against which the angry waves 
dash and break in vain. 

Be it that his administration was too brief Tor the full de- 
velopment of the principles of his government, — did he not do 
enough in the short period, during which he exercised the 
functions of Chief Magistrate, to crown him with richer laurels 
than any that he ever won upon the battle-field ? 

Mere martial prowess is no very enviable distinction. Cour- 
age to face the deadliest storm of grape-shot and bomb-shells, 
may spring from those instincts which we possess in common 
with the brutes, from unrefl.ecting ignorance, or the reckless 



8 

hardihood of vice, — it being often found to exist, in the high- 
est degree, among piratical hordes. There are circumstances, 
which try a man's fortitude far more than the flashing of mus- 
ketry, the roar of cannon, or the sudden clash of steel. Many 
an individual, who can meet unflinchingly the shock of battle, 
will be driven from duty by a sneer, — is the veriest coward in 
the world in the moral contests of life. 

If then General Taylor was a hero in the field, he was a far 
greater hero in the cabinet. He passed through a severer 
ordeal at Washington, than when contending against the most 
fearful odds at fort Harrison, than in the swamps and ever- 
glades of Florida, or on the plains of Mexico. Others might 
have driven away the Indians, and conquered the Mexicans ; 
but it took him, distinguished by that popular soubriquet, 
" Rough and Ready," to put the curb on the fiery fanatics of 
the South, and with a stout hand and stouter heart, hold fast 
the helm, while the ship of state was dashing through the so- 
called " Hurlgate of a more boiling and violent strife than had 
ever befallen her before." 

But, it should be added in this connection, that, while the 
Chief Magistrate of a Christian people ought not to be chargea- 
ble with the foolishness of quailing before the face of clay, he 
should have the wisdom to fear God. There are no acts of 
the late President that we recall with greater interest than 
those which have reference to Jehovah and his holy Word. 
You well recollect that when the Most High was pouring out 
the vial of his judgment upon the land in the form of epidemic 
cholera, President Taylor was free to acknowledge the divine 
hand in the desolating scourge, and to invite the people to ob- 
serve a day of fasting and prayer for their deliverance. When, 
just after his inauguration, the Secretary of the American 
Bible Society jfesented him, in behalf of that Society, a copy 
of the Sacred Volume, he took occasion to express his deep 
sense of the value of the heavenly oracles. And, in one of 
his messages to Congress, he did not shrink from setting the 
seal of his approbation to the great work of missions, referring 
particularly to those heralds of the cross, who had labored with 
such fidelity and success in the Sandwich Islands. It seems, 
moreover, that, in his last hours, his physicians gave way to 
the services of the minister of Christ. 



9 

But he is gone. The places that have known hhn, will now 
know him no more forever. Death shuts the scene, and a 
nation mourns. By his removal, not the South, or the North, 
or the West merely, but the Union has lost a friend, one who 
"lived an American," and who "died an American." The 
Irish leader, O'Connell, requested that, at his decease, his 
heart might be sent to Rome ; but President Taylor left his 
heart to the country, to which it had been given in the dew of 
his youth. Be it that his partner in life would not consent to 
the embalming of his mortal remains ; his worthy deeds are 
embalmed in the memory of the people whom he served. 
Congress has voted an appropriation for the erection of a mon- 
ument to the deceased ; but his sagacity, firmness and boldness 
in maintaining the true interests of the country in such perilous 
straits, and, especially, the tokens of his regard for the institu- 
tions of religion, are a nobler monument than that of granite 
or of marble. 

But, fellow citizens, I have a higher purpose than to dwell 
on the incidents of General Taylor's eventful life, and that is, 
to present some reflections, suggested by his death, which has 
so touched with grief the nation's heart. 

Consider, 1. The importance of greater candor and generos- 
ity in the treatment of our rulers while living. 

To what an amazing and melancholy extent is the practice 
of abusing political opponents, the practice of crimination and 
recrimination carried by some partisan speakers and parti- 
san editors of every name. But what justice, what reason ; 
or rather, I would ask, what sin and folly, in so lashing with 
the tongue and pen, those who will not bow to the Cassar of 
our party, — being guilty only of thinking and acting for them- 
selves in politics. Oh, the unfairness, the gross dishonesty of 
so lavishing praises upon political favorites, " washing them 
where they are white, and whitev/ashing them where the nat- 
ural color is black ; " but, at the same time, maligning every 
poUtical opponent, as though nothing less than a demon incar- 
nate. You all know the crying evil to which reference is 
made — that the mere nomination, by any party, of a candidate 
for office, no matter how excellent his qualifications and 
his character, is the signal for every other party to draw out 
their tongue as a sword, and open all their batteries against 



10 

him,— there being nothing too sacred for the most scurrilous 
assault. 

But the object of the muhiplied strokes of caUmmy and 
abuse is laid in the dust. How changed the scene ! It is like 
a clear, soft morning, after a dark and tempestuous night; or 
like the mild breath of Spring, after rude Winter's stormy 
blasts. Those who had so derided and reproached the man, 
become emulous to do him honor. Now., the only strife seems 
to be, who can do most to strew flowers on his grave. 

What a striking illustration of these remarks is the case of 
the late John Quincy Adams. Though so denounced and 
calumniated while living, no sooner was he stricken down on 
the floor of Congress, than the very individuals who had been 
most severe in their censures, were most eloquent in their 
praises. The man whose measures had been so violently op- 
posed, and whose motives had been most shamefully traduced, 
seemed to have the highest honors paid to his memory ; — his 
remains being borne home to Quincy with that unexampled 
attendance of a congressional delegation from every State in 
the Union. 

And think of him whose decease we now deplore. Was he 
not unmercifully assailed while living? But the moment of 
his departure hence, how are the tables turned ! The pen of 
abuse is dropped ; the tongue of slander is hushed, — some 
glorifying to-day, as a noble patriot, him, whom yesterday they 
were branding as the vilest traitor. But what consistency is 
there, in condemning a man all his life, and then striving to 
the utmost to eulogize him after his death ; thus, as it were, 
garnishing the sepulchre of him, whom, by the most cutting 
sarcasms and lacerating invectives, they have flayed alive. 
What ! can we deal impartially with a civil ruler, only when 
he becomes cold in death ! Cannot we divest ourselves of 
cruel prejudices against him, until he is covered beneath the 
sod ! Then in this aspect of the case, his death is a joyful 
event, putting a period, as it does, to the invidious flings and 
foul aspersions of partisan opponents, and ushering in the reign 
of justice and of truth. 

Oh that therefore, while experiencing the softening, mellow- 
ing influence of a President deceased, we might be led to treat 
with due generosity and candor the living magistrate, — remem- 



11 

bering that the abuse which so grates on the nerves, " trem- 
blingly alive all o'er to each fine impulse," affects them not 
when torpid in the grave ; and hence that, if it is sacrilege to 
mangle the cold unfeeling corpse, it is worse than sacrilege to 
harrow up, with the teeth of malice, the living, keenly sensi- 
tive soul. Let us then cease to wage against our rulers a 
harassing and merciless warfare, before they cease to feel, — 
deal with them justly, ere they pass altogether beyond the 
reach of our praise and our blame. It is honorable to bury the 
animosities against them in then- graves. But, would it not be 
more honorable to give them the respect which is their due, in 
the land of the living. 

2. The national bereavement, over which we now mourn, 
may serve to make more manifest the strength of our Federal 
Republic. 

Many, indeed, have spoken of this bereavement, as one 
throwing a cloud over the future, and awakening evil fore- 
bodings. I acknowledge that, in the loss of our Chief Magis- 
trate, we have been called to pass through a severe ordeal. 
Still, does not the very severity of the ordeal, show more 
clearly, not the imbecility and decay, but the robustness and 
vigor of the body politic. 

It is interesting to consider how many prophecies of ruin 
we have already survived. What numbers, during the period 
of Washington's administration, for example, thought that the 
Republic depended on him for its support — that he was the 
very key-stone to the arch of the confederacy, so that his re- 
moval would ensure its ruin. Washington, however, retired 
from office ;— but the glorious arch of our confederacy fell not, 
neither was a stone of it disturbed. Washington died ;— yet 
the Republic did not sink with him into the grave,— nay, it 
still continued to flourish, going on from one degree of strength 
to another, until IS 12. 

Then, when the heavens gathered blackness, and the storm 
of war burst upon us, how many hearts failed within them for 
fear, supposing that our destruction was sure. The storm 
passed by,— bowmg, but not breaking the tree ; riddling the 
canvass, and carryuig away some of the spars,— but not parting 
a tmiber, springing a plank, or opening the slightest seam, in 
the staunch, oak-ribbed hull. 



12 

Then came the terrible agitation of the Missouri question. 
Whatever the dangers hitherto escaped, here, thought various 
individuals, is a tempest which will surely send us to the 
bottom. But anon, the tempest spends its force, the roused 
and foaming billows subside, and the ship goes on as strongly 
and prosperously as before. 

Yet we were not past all danger. The sea of politics is very 
far from being a smooth expanse, always sparkling in the sun- 
shine. It is rather a sea of troubled waters, often swept by 
storms, full of perils, — perils from without and perils from 
within, — perils that, many times, come upon us altogether 
unforeseen, unexpected. After we had outrode, in safety, the 
tempest which arose from the discussion of the Missouri 
question, and were flattering ourselves that we should proceed 
on our voyage undisturbed, — lo ! the startling sound of mutiny- 
is heard. South Carolina is in arms. Oh ! the horrors of the 
threatening contest. What but utter confusion and desolation 
must ensue, — is the language of many a fainting heart. But 
how soon did the stern voice of the commander Jackson, — 
" The Union — it must, and it shall be preserved," — quell the 
mutiny of the nullifiers, and allay our fears. 

This danger escaped, we were called to pass through a new 
and till then, wholly untried scene of affliction. The beloved 
commander, Harrison, is smitten in death — a calamity which 
came upon us quite unawares, like a thunderbolt from a clear 
sky. But sudden and unexpected as was the calamity, the 
ship, so far from going adrift, and being cast a wreck upon the 
shore, still keeps on her course. And now again the man at 
the helm falls — falls too at a most critical juncture, while the 
ship of state is traversing the most perilous part of her stormy 
pathway. Yet she is not driven back, and carried far oflf into 
unknown seas, or upon strange shores. Though tempest after 
tempest has beaten against her, and wave after wave broken 
over her, threatening to swallow her up, — does she not, even 
to this hour, hold steadily on her way, bounding over the 
tempestuous billows, like a thing of life. 

Nor, be it observed, is this last test to which the Republic 
has been subjected, 1 mean the sudden removal of the execu- 
tive head, a test of a trifling character. Suppose Louis Napo- 
leon of France should as suddenly fall, — would not his fall 



13 

shake the nation, and make the whole of continental Europe, 
too, tremble to its farthest bounds ? Or, take away the em- 
peror Nicholas, the autocrat of Russia, — and would the affairs 
of that gigantic empire, or of the neighboring dynasties, move 
on as before, unchecked and undisturbed ? Might not the 
death of Nicholas be the presage of far more serious commo- 
tions than those which attended the death of his predecessor, 
Alexander, in 1825? How trivial an event, how slight a 
cause, might raise in Europe a hurricane of revolution, that 
would rock the hoary thrones of despotism more terribly than 
all the revolutions of 1S4S. 

And why are the governments of Europe so insecure, — so 
liable to be disturbed when the president, the king, or the 
emperor falls, — trembling like a leaf in almost every breeze ? 
Why, but because those governments rest on a basis too nar- 
row for their top — rest, to such an extent, on single men ? 
Said Louis XIV., " I am the state." And, in the old world, 
to what a degree is the ruler still the state ? Nowhere, as in 
this land, does so little depend upon the ruler, so much upon 
the people. Here emphatically, no officer of government, not 
even the chief magistrate, wnh such immense patronage at his 
command, but the people, — the people are the state. Hence it 
is, that no tempest, or earthquake, not of force to rend the 
people in twain, can overturn the people's government. Yes, 
great as is the loss of such a President as Taylor, at such a 
time of agitation, — though a calamity of that nature, which 
might have convulsed Europe to its centre, — it is not a calam- 
ity too great for this free Republic to bear. What though a 
bolt from heaven has struck off the ornament that crowned the 
pillar of our state, — the noble pillar itself stands unmoved. 

I know that, in this respect, we are a mystery to many 
Europeans. They do not understand the secret of our sta- 
bility. Our Republic seems to them a most frail and perishable 
thing, so that from the very time of its origin, they have been 
confidently predicting its ruin, as though it were but a bubble 
that a breath might destroy. But when they consider the 
blow after blow that has fallen upon us, during the mOre than 
sixty years of the existence of this confederacy ; especially, 
when they consider that, now for the second time, we have 
been called to experience so afflictive a stroke as the sudden 



14 

removal of a chief magistrate, and yet survive the whole 
unharmed, it would seem as though they might be led to think 
that, if our Republic be a bubble, it is nevertheless a strong 
one, — a bubble composed, not so much of fluid inflated, as of 
rock crystalized. 

We do not, therefore, come together to-day, in despair of our 
representative government. In mourning the death of the late 
chief magistrate, we do not mourn the end of the Republic 
over which he presided. The report of his decease was not 
the knell of popular liberty, or the signal for the outbreak of 
popular violence. We read of no insurrection, no disturbance 
as the result. But, according to the provision of the Constitu- 
tion, another, within a few hours, steps into the office made 
vacant by death, and the whole machinery of government con- 
tinues to move on. Surely a government that has passed 
through so many and such severe ordeals, unscathed, is of 
some sterling worth ; a vessel that has so long encountered the 
rough winds and the stormy waves, must be something more 
than beautiful, — must be sound and seaworthy, composed of 
well-adjusted timbers of oak and bolts of iron. 

DeQply then as we mourn the sudden removal of President 
Taylor, it is a cheering fact, that while he dies, the Republic 
lives ; that though, as we proceed upon our voyage, one star 
after another sinks below the horizon, new lights arise upon 
us, to guide and cheer us on our way. 

3. The national bereavement, which has called us together, 
should deeply impress us with the fact that God is the Supreme 
Ruler of the world. 

Our exulting cry had been, " General Taylor never surren- 
ders." But how quickly did the iron frame, that had survived 
all the perils of the camp and the field for forty years, yield to 
the touch of the great destroyer, — thus teaching us that 
" there is no man that hath power over the spirit, to retain the 
spirit ; neither hath he power in the day of death ; and there 
is no discharge in that war " — no discharge even to the great- 
est of earth's conquerors. Truly man at his best estate is 
altogether vanity. How is the mighty fallen— fallen under 
the stroke of a Higher Power;— the hero of Monterey and 
Buena Vista being as impotent to resist the divine summons as 
the feeblest infant. And is not this solemn providence meant 



15 

to lead US to feel and to acknowledge our dependence on Him 
who ruleth the kuigdoms of men, and giveth them to whom- 
soever he pleaseth ? 

The truth is, we are too prone to forget who sits on the 
throne of the universe. In the excitement of our great presi- 
dential campaigns, especially, we are apt to fix our eyes on 
this, or that man, as the great source of our prosperity, the 
chief ground of our trust. We wrestle earnestly for his eleva- 
tion to the presidential chair, as though to secure that were to 
secure the country. The man of our choice, the very man, as 
we think, for the people and the times, is placed at the head of 
affairs ; and we glory in the result, as though he were suffi- 
cient to defend and promote the nation's interests ; — all the 
while, wickedly forgetful of the Supreme Disposer. No mar- 
vel therefore that He, whose hand was unacknowledged in the 
blessings conferred, should make himself known in the judg- 
ment which he executeth, — suddenly turning the idol of our 
hearts into dust and ashes. With what emphatic earnestness 
does the voice that comes from the tomb of Harrison and of 
Taylor, reiterate the Scripture admonition, '' Put not your 
trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom is no help." 

And shall that voice be unheeded ? Shall the recognition of 
Jehovah's hand in the affairs of government, pass away with 
the services of this hour, and we place our trust, as confidently 
as before, in an arm of flesh ? Oh ! as certain as we as a 
nation wander from God, we wander but to perish — we drop 
from the very zenith of our prosperity like a falling star. Said 
Washington, in his farewell address to the people of the United 
States, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to polit- 
ical prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. 
In vain would that man claim the tribute of pariotism, who 
should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, 
— these firmest props of men and citizens." Yes, the fear of 
the Lord is the very beginning even of true political wisdom. 
The people that do know their God shall be strong and do 
exploits. Righteousness exalteth a nation. But mark the dire 
effects of sin. It destroyed the old world. It involved in 
utter ruin the cities of the plain. Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, 
Edom, great and mighty as they were, perished by their iniqui- 
ties. And what but her wickedness was the cause of Jerusa- 



16 

leni's terrible doom. Think too of Rome, imperial Rome, 
rising to be mistress of the nations, sitting on her seven hills 
as queen of the world, — was it not her vices which made her 
vast empire crumble like ashes ? Sin, therefore, is the reproach 
of any people ; the element of their destruction. *« Hear now 
this," says the Prophet, speaking of a nation that disregarded 
God, " thou hast trusted in thy wickedness ; thou hast said, 
there is no overseer. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath 
perverted thee ; and thou hast said in thy heart, I am, and 
none else besides me. Therefore evil shall come upon thee, 
and thou shalt not know whence it riseth ; and mischief shall 
fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off;" — and 
history is full of examples attesting the truth of the prophet's 
declaration. We may have the cannibalism of the South Sea 
Islands, the degrading idolatry of India, or the iron despotism 
of China, or of Turkey ; nay more, we may have the infidel 
liberty of the French revolution of 1789, with all the blessings 
of the guillotine, without the general prevalence of the gospel ; 
but, without the gospel, we cannot have the glorious liberty of 
the Puritan Republic. 

Let us then cleave to the gospel as an anchor-hold for life, 
and so prove ourselves not unworthy of the glorious heritage 
bequeathed us by our pious, God-fearing ancestry. With such 
an anchor-hold, no matter how the tempests rage, or the ocean 
roars, we have nothing to fear ; without it, nothing to hope. 
Better, infinitely better, that a conflagration sweep over the 
land, or an earthquake entomb it, than that we break away 
from all allegiance to God and his holy word. 

May then the event that we now mourn lead us to humble 
ourselves under the mighty hand of God, to repent of profane- 
ness, of intemperance, of Sabbath-breaking, of fraud, of oppres- 
sion, of every sin, and turn to Him who judgeth in the earth, 
so that the present discordant notes in our national affairs may 
be only the prelude to the richest harmony, and thus we ever 
be that happy people whose God is the Lord. 







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